Refugees from the earthquake take shelter in makeshift tents in a camp in Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of thousands of people were left homeless by the massive quake that hit Haiti on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010.Shaul Schwarz—Reportage by Getty Images for TIME

Refugees from the earthquake take shelter in makeshift tents in a camp in Port-au-Prince. Hundreds of thousands of peopl

Aftermath of Haiti's Quake: A Photographer's Vision

Tragedy often has a way of visiting those who can bear it the least. And on Jan 12, 2010, that is exactly what happened to Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere. At 4:53p.m. that day, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 hit a point just southwest of the capital, Port-au-Prince. In a few terrifying minutes, a vibrant city was devastated, and tens of thousands died. Immediately, the scale of the tragedy was apparent: a nation already so often on it's knees had been knocked to the ground.